I heard a story on NPR the other day entitled. Creative Play Makes for Kids in Control I thought, " great this will be about kids in control of the classroom and the value of just playing around...." When the story came on I was stunned to find out that it was really about this...
In one corner of a busy classroom, 4-year-olds Zee Logan and Emmy Hernandez want to play bookstore. (but)...before Emmy and Zee even think about picking up a toy, they sit down with their teacher at a small classroom table and fill out some paperwork.That's right. Paperwork.On a small blank form, they spell out their intentions. "I want to play bookstore," each girl writes with assistance from her teacher. (more)
Now, the story demonstrated some value in what was going on, but to me it was like they had turned play into project management work to improve the kids executive function. Executive function? these are 4 year olds! Maybe its good but why do we feel the need to make play useful? Can't play be useful unto itself? As it happens, Bernie DeKoven, a true master of fun saw a related story on the same day and wrote Of play, talking to yourself, and self-regulation
All of this got me thinking about Alan Watts and Lila or Leela, a Hindu concept of play. For some it is this "play" that creates "reality" and this thought led me (back?) to God's Nonsense.
In Financial Football Players tackle financial questions like professionals in a fast-paced, quiz-style game. Compete by answering finance-themed questions to earn yardage and score touchdowns. This is fun. From Practical Money Skills for Life
Tabletop Olympics at NASAGA The other week we were at NASAGA, Bernie De Koven, funsmith, led a session that introduced Junkyard Sports ® Tabletop Olympics. (Those are Becky's hands playing High Cup Jump.)
It was a great session and a very useful idea. Read more from Bernie at Deepfun.com
C&W meets the virtual world :-)
A friend sent me the lyrics to a new Brad Paisley song, were they trying to tell me something? I saw this cute scroller and thought I would post the tune.
Mudoku! Mudoku! From the FAQ--"What is Mudoku? Mudoku (TM) has the same rules as Sudoku, but up to 8 players can play on a single board simultaneously. In addition, each player receives immediate notification whether or not a move was correct, and gains a point for a correct move, or loses one or more points (depending on what difficulty level has been set) for an incorrect move."
Bernie Dekoven is a wonderful game designer and playful guy. Back in September I wrote about Giant Pick Up Sticks, a game inspired by Bernie's work in the last century (1976) in Philadephia as a part of the centenial celebration in the City of Brotherly Love. This time, I want to introduce you to one of Bernies more recent innovation. The Junkyard Golf Course and Community Building Event with Potluck To quote Bernie "Everybody can play. There are calls to creativity and collaboration, invitations to inclusion, incentives for sharing, and it all somehow connects people to each other and to the world they are creating together." Bernie freely gives you a complete set of intructions for how to play in a do-it-yourself way. An alternative is to get his book JunkYard Sports and get directions for this and many other fun activities. We have done junkyard golf indoors as a part of the NASAGA conference. We did it with the help of this book, (and a call to Bernie).
If you are a trainer or conference organizer and like this idea, but need a truely structured simulation game activity for a conference or teambuilding. Bernie does sell a complete facilitator guide and participants materials for an indoor version called Finger Golf. This version provides you with a structure that helps you not only have fun and create community, but also begin to reflect on community formation and about how you can take more responsibility for your participation and the benefits you receive.
Pong: The Text-Based Game Pong: The Text-Based Game This interesting. A text based pong game. About as fun as some e-learning courses I have seen... There are two additonal links to "Pong: The Movie" and a 3-d pong game. Here is one more pong link for your playing pleasure.
After you play, think about what makes one or another of these more "fun". Take a peek at "Of FUN and Flow" by Bernie DeKovin. Think about how can you create more fun.
